A Lovely Sweater
Ta-da! Finished at last. My first sweater ever to be hand-spun, hand-dyed, and hand-crocheted. (I’d add “hand-processed,” but that wouldn’t be truthful because I bought the fiber as nice, squishy roving.)
A Lovely Sweater
I finally figured out the best name for this color I got with the cochineal. Raspberry. Or rose. But rose might denote a paler color. Anyway, I’ve been very busily working away on the shawl-neck sweater. Here’s what I’ve got so far. Actually, I’ve done more since this picture was taken, but it’ll give you the general idea.
The Beginnings of a Sweater
I’m really pleased with the way it’s turning out. At first I wasn’t sure I like how it looked, but it’s grown on me. I think that it’ll look even better once it’s blocked.
Norwegian is finished! All thirteen ounces of it spun up into six nice skeins. Don’t ask me about the yardage; I don’t know. This yarn is destined for Kool-Aid dyeing (assuming nothing goes wrong), and hopefully it will find a happy home.
It is now sitting on the drying rack, along with as many other yarns as I could fit. The New Year’s Dash worked great, but I wound up with tons of yarn to set the twist in.
And I’ve started on the merino roving. I’m spinning it into a two-ply sport weight, which I will dye a deep shade of red (using cochineal!) and then crochet into a sweater type thing.
Thin Merino
I have worked with the alpaca and come out on top. I have conquered, and I’m loving it.
A Bobbin of Joy
The original idea was to try for a sport weight yarn, but I don’t know if that’s what this will turn out as. I spun a gazillion little samples to see what the best amount of twist would be. (And promptly forgot which sample went with which amount of twist.) But, the alpaca seems to be behaving, and I’m getting pretty good at separating out the coarser, slippery hairs. Wait, that sounds funny—how can something be slippery and coarse? . . . but that’s really the only way I can describe it.
I couldn’t wait to start spinning up the “Flamenco” superwash merino and silk blend that I got from the Sanguine Gryphon. I’m using my lighter drop spindle on top whorl. I just love the richness of the colors. Wool/silk blends are rapidly becoming my favorite. They draft like butter! This will probably become the standard, three-ply light worsted weight. Unless it manages to talk me into making it a two-ply sport weight. The single on the spindle is crying to be lace!
Spun Single